Cao Dai

The Cao Dai movement is a syncretic monotheistic religion in Vietnam. It was founded in 1925 by a Vietnamese civil servant as a synthesis of Christianity, Buddhism, and Taoism, worshipping the Divine Eye of the god Cao Dai and seeing Victor Hugo, Sun Yat-sen, Nguyen Binh Khiem as its venerable saints. Centered in the Tay Ninh region to the north of Saigon and the Mekong Delta region, it maintained private armies during the First Indochina War and fought against both the Viet Minh and France during the 1950s and 1960s. From 1955 to 1956, the Cao Dai armies were crushed by the ARVN on the orders of Ngo Dinh Diem, and, by the early 1960s, it had factions which supported the Viet Cong (Ly Khais faction), neutralists, and Ngo Dinh Diem. Among its political wings were the Vietnamese Restoration Association and the Vietnamese Restoration League.